"There is only one thing people like that is good for them; a good night's sleep." 
E. W. Howe

We spend around a third of our lives sleeping. It is the human equivalent of a ‘reboot’ as we prepare for the coming day by switching off and rejuvenating our systems. Important bodily functions such as tissue repair and memory-making take place while we snooze and any disturbance to our sleep routine is detrimental to our performance and mood.

Getting a good night’s sleep depends on a number of factors, but having a comfortable bed is definitely high on the agenda: few things are more dispiriting than a night spent on a bed in which it is impossible to relax. Coats has been supplying thread to some of the world’s leading mattress and bedding suppliers for many years, and we work with manufacturers to ensure you never have to think about the thread that’s holding your bed together – whether it’s a quilting thread for a mattress topper or one of our aramid threads designed to meet the latest flame retardancy regulations.

Beds these days are subject to strict quality controls and health and safety requirements. We’ve come a long way since our ancestors slept on piles of leaves and animal skins: by Roman times, we had already progressed to feathers, though that was only for the elite (the peasantry still relied on wool and hay for their downtime). But it wasn’t until the 18th century that mattresses arrived in a form that we would recognise today, with stitched edges and button tops, followed by box springs in the 1800s.

Today the choice is much greater and buying a new mattress can present a bewildering array of decisions about how you sleep and what your needs and personal preferences should dictate: firm or soft; memory foam or hybrid; mattress topper or not; built-in massage technology or adjustable lumbar support? And new conductive materials mean that it will be soon be possible to adjust your bedding’s temperature settings – so, for example, conductive thread sewn into a topper would have the ability to sense your body temperature and adjust the heat/cooling settings as appropriate, to give you the optimal environment for sleeping.

In fact, in our high-stress world, getting a good night’s sleep has become something of a holy grail; the faster the pace, the more we crave and need our downtime. Type in 'getting a good night’s sleep' to any search engine and you will find tips galore – everything from regulating light and temperature to the value of weighted blankets. But when it comes down to it, good sleep is something of a confidence trick – the more you fret about it, the less likely you are to achieve it.

For our part, we can pretty much guarantee that Coats thread will never keep you awake at night – which is just as it should be.

Coats Protos Fil is a fire retardant sewing thread made from 100% para-aramid continuous filament. This thread offers thermal resistance and protective seam durability in applications exposed to high external heat. Para-aramid filament is very difficult to dye, but Coats has developed a unique and innovative dyeing process to offer Coats Protos Fil in a range of colours suitable for the mattress industry. It has excellent heat and age resistance and retains its strength at flame temperatures exceeding 400°C. Coats Protos Fil meets both American Fed 16 CFR 1633 Mattress Burn Test and Military AA 55220 specification requirements.